Reagan - The notes: ronald reagans private collection of stories and wisdom

THE NOTES

THE NOTES

Ronald Reagans Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom

Edited by Douglas Brinkley

To all the men and women who

worked with Ronald Reagan in both

state and federal government

Contents

A t theReagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, its known as theRosetta stonethe secret collection of 4-by-6 note cards on which our fortiethU.S. president recorded his favorite aphorisms, jokes, asides, and timelessnuggets of political wisdom. Although White House speechwriters such as PeggyNoonan, Ken Khachigian, and Tony Dolan had heard about Reagans private notes collection, even occasionally witnessing himsnatching an appropriate note out of his Oval Office desk drawer to insert intoa speech draft, no one except Nancy Reagan had ever seen the full assemblage.Just as the fact that Reagan kept a daily diary as U.S. president from 1981 to1989 surprised most people, the publication of TheNotes is an equally important landmark event in Reagan studies.Anyone wondering about how Reagandubbed The Great Communicatordelivered suchoratorical magic as a dinner speaker and itinerant statesman should read thiscompilation. These notes reveal the real Reaganafiercely patriotic, pro-democracy avatar of limited government.

Its believed that Reagan started The Notes collection when he was serving as aspokesperson for General Electric, from 1954 to 1962. Compelled to deliverhundreds of upbeat speeches a year to the Fortune 500 companys far-flungemployees, Reagan devised a pragmatic method of keeping his hour-long publicpresentations both high-minded and lighthearted. A consummate showman, Reaganalways padded salient contemporary political points with a couple of BorschtBelt one-liners followed by a wallop of engraved truth from one of the FoundingFathers. All those optimistic Eisenhower-era speeches focused on the virtues offree-market capitalism over Sovietism. Reagan listened, before and afterspeeches, to GE workers complain about high taxation and unnecessaryregulations. He assimilated many of their sentiments into his own.

The backstory of how TheNotes were rediscovered in 2010 is endearing. Under the direction offormer First Lady Nancy Reagan, the library was getting a face-lift in time forthe centennial of her husbands birth (February 6, 2011). Fifteen milliondollars was raised to renovate from top to bottom the 26,000 square feet of theoriginal exhibit space in the museum. Reagan Foundation executive director JohnHeubusch issued a clear directive: Lets find some exciting, new artifacts toput on museum display. The foundations chief administrative officer and formerReagan aide Joanne Drake launched a hybrid treasure huntinventory to uncoverhidden heirloomsno easy task, given the sheer bulk of boxes deposited at theReagan Library.

One afternoon in the spring of 2010, The Notes , published here, were discovered in acardboard box marked only in pen with RRs desk on its side. There was nolabel on it. It was randomly stashed among boxes of assorted Reagan memorabilia.What a Eureka moment. Here were the personal belongings Reagan had kept in hisoffice desk right up until his death in 2004. No one but Reagan himself probablyever recognized the historic value of these treasured notes, which he kept amonga mass of rubber bands and paperclips. About 95 percent of the Reagan Libraryarchive belongs to the U.S. federal government. The remaining 5 percent ofmaterial is the property of the Reagan Foundation. This amazing box ofhandwritten Reagan leavingspersonal property owned by the formerpresidentbelongs to the foundation. A decision was soon made by the foundationto publish The Notes .

All of The Notes were handwritten. When Reagan was recopying various quotations he was especiallyneat. His scrawl is impeccableseldom does he employ a cross-out or correct amis-start. Clearly, legibility was a high priority to him. Sometimes he uses anasterisk or makes a hearty underline for emphasis. Shorthand is often the orderof the day. The reader gets the impression that Reagan is a redwood tree andthese are the decorations of his own philosophy, the ammunition he will need tosurvive the hustings ahead.

In addition to admiring the former presidentspenmanship, those who analyzed The Notes made somepreliminary historical assessment. The notes that are published in this volumeunder the heading Humor are one-liners that were maintained in a fat stack ofcards with a rubber band around them. They were separate from the rest of thecollection. Whenever Reagan heard or invented a joke that he deemed a keeper,hed carefully write it out on a 4-by-6 note card and insert it in this stack.All the other axioms and aphorisms in this volumeall written in his own handand found under the rubrics On the Nation, On Liberty, On War, On thePeople, On Religion, The World, On Character, and On PoliticalTheaterwere kept in the plastic sleeves of a black photo album. There was nocategorical arrangement of the notecards under headings. I devised that methodto make it easier for the reader. This album artifact, the notecards yellowedaround the edges, is now on permanent display at the renovated Reagan Library,unveiled as part of the 2011 centennial celebration.

Longtime friends of Reagans remember thatsometimes when he delivered a speech hed throw the card of a joke that fellflat or of a nugget of political wisdom that tanked in front of an audiencesears into a wastepaper basket. What made it into the photo album were his goldenoldies, his trench-tested winners, the intellectual ideas of notable others thatbest reflected his own worldview. At the collections core is Reagans bedrockbelief that freedom and liberty come with the cost of being an alert andwell-informed citizen. The collection constitutes a love song to America, thebackbone of his most cherished ideas.

Many of the one-liners, jokes, high wisdom,straight talk, and political aphorisms in The Notes were delivered at one time or another in a public forum. If Reagan had oneartifact that he would have saved were his house on fire, it would probably havebeen his card-stuffed photo album. Its contents were tools of his trade as GEspokesperson, roast master, California governor, and U.S. president. There arehundreds of Thomas Jefferson quotes, for example, that are regularly offered upby U.S. politicians at rubber-chicken dinners and in stump speeches. What isinteresting is why Reagan gravitated toward the handful of Jefferson in thisvolume. Its his choices that are fascinating.

The reason the Reagan Library calls The Notes a Rosetta stone is that the general publiccan easily deconstruct from this collection Reagans own political philosophy.There is a gravitas to the quotes he chose to save in his private album. Withthe exception of the one-liners, all the collected wisdom in The Notes constitutes Reagans Greatest Hits. Andthere are some shockerswho ever thought Reagan would have found anything usefulfrom Mao or Norman Thomas? Even Reagans political adversaries in America, likeGeorge McGovern, Walter Mondale, and Pat Brown, conceded that the Gippers greatgift was an innate ability to deliver a pitch-perfect joke, put-down, orice-breaking one-liner on cue. When Robert F. Kennedy debated Reagan in 1967about the Vietnam Warand Kennedy lostKennedy recognized that his rival hadhoned his gladiatorial routine to utter perfection, with an acute sense oftiming, aw-shucks nods, chuckles, and eye rolls. Reagan, RFK concluded, wasthe toughest debater I ever went up against.